Satellite Dish or Wi-Fi

[Sunseeker]

Hi Earlier this year I ask about getting a Satellite Dish for use both UK and France/Spain but the overwhelming feedback was to opt for Wi-Fi. I have looked at a few options and am looking for further feedback the ones I've viewed are Avtex AMR985, Maxview Roam and Poynting various models.

Any Recommendations Thanks

 

[63720]

With our phones for £20 each per month we get 100gb of data with no restrictions abroad, for us with just the purchase of an Amazon Firestick to use with our existing TV and tether to the pnones it's a no brainer to go data.

 

[dunnah01]

Firesticks will be expensive in France & Spain (unless you're on Superdrugmobile) but you won't get much satellite in Spain unless you get a card and box to work around. If my sat wasn't already fitted when we bought the van I'd just get a freestanding dish setup

 

[Ninjabob]

How many sites have you been to were you could not get a decent phone signal. If the answer is none get a firestick. If the answer is yes like me then stick with a dish. How long will it be before the Superdrug data deal ends?

 

[63720]

Firesticks will be expensive in France & Spain (unless you're on Superdrugmobile) but you won't get much satellite in Spain unless you get a card and box to work around. If my sat wasn't already fitted when we bought the van I'd just get a freestanding dish setup

Perhaps you could explain 'Firesticks will be expensive....' when we've already a big data allowance in the EU. We stream TV everywhere now at home or abroad and never use a TV aerial. With data we can stream on a phone, tablet or TV even at the same time allowing us to watch different programmes anytime and listen to UK radio anywhere in the EU even while travelling, and we can view our CCTV content. It's just perfect for all our needs.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Hettie's Crew]

I looked at the Avtex AMR985 and liked it but then after some research and asking on here figured out it was a Teltonika RUT950 router and a Panorama aerial, nothing to do with Avtex really, so I decided to put my own together. The Avtex version only has the mobile signal 2x2 Panorama aerial, not WiFi.
I chose a Panorama Great White 2x2 mobile, 2x2 WiFi but would have been just as happy with the Poynting version antenna, which I think is a little cheaper.
See this post.

Avtex AMR985 Mobile Internet Solution. Anyone have experience of it?

At Shepton and looking at the above, 5g ready aerial, two unlocked sim ports at a good price. Anyone got one? https://avtex.co.uk/router

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[Gellyneck]

Perhaps you could explain 'Firesticks will be expensive....' when we've already a big data allowance in the EU. We stream TV everywhere now at home or abroad and never use a TV aerial. With data we can stream on a phone, tablet or TV even at the same time allowing us to watch different programmes anytime and listen to UK radio anywhere in the EU even while travelling, and we can view our CCTV content. It's just perfect for all our needs.

At what monthly cost?
As we're frequent tourers in north \ west Scotland we've got 4 sims in our two mobiles to try and maximise the possibility of a mobile signal and even then we sometimes fail or, regularly, at best 3g hence the reason we've got a Snipe satellite set-up. Snipe probably paid for itself in <12 months of use vs data packages particularly if we need four of them. Best solution for us.

 

[dunnah01]

Perhaps you could explain 'Firesticks will be expensive....' when we've already a big data allowance in the EU. We stream TV everywhere now at home or abroad and never use a TV aerial. With data we can stream on a phone, tablet or TV even at the same time allowing us to watch different programmes anytime and listen to UK radio anywhere in the EU even while travelling, and we can view our CCTV content. It's just perfect for all our needs.

Yep - do all that but use nearer to to 200Gb / month but luckily unlimited in the UK and Europe but not sure for how long we can stay under the radar

 

[63720]

At what monthly cost?
As we're frequent tourers in north \ west Scotland we've got 4 sims in our two mobiles to try and maximise the possibility of a mobile signal and even then we sometimes fail or, regularly, at best 3g hence the reason we've got a Snipe satellite set-up. Snipe probably paid for itself in <12 months of use vs data packages particularly if we need four of them. Best solution for us.

Err, £20 per month each for 100 GB each and a Firestsck for £49 many years ago. We're with BT and have roam like home in Europe.

 

[Gellyneck]

Err, £20 per month each for 100 GB each and a Firestsck for £49 many years ago. We're with BT and have roam like home in Europe.

Based on that it would cost us nigh on a grand a year for the 4 contracts and still not guaranteed an acceptable signal to stream by.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Kups]

How many sites have you been to were you could not get a decent phone signal. If the answer is none get a firestick. If the answer is yes like me then stick with a dish. How long will it be before the Superdrug data deal ends?

Don't forget Sky mobile sim is not limited in the EU. You can use your normal allowance, piggybank and add any more data by payment if needed.

 

[63720]

Based on that it would cost us nigh on a grand a year for the 4 contracts and still not guaranteed an acceptable signal to stream by.

We've never been to NW Scotland so can't compare but I can honestly say we've never been anywhere and not received a signal. Our phone contracts suit us for everything either home or abroad so the TV is a free bonus and often don't even use the firestick just stream to our tablets for web based programmes.

 

[Gellyneck]

We've never been to NW Scotland so can't compare but I can honestly say we've never been anywhere and not received a signal. Our phone contracts suit us for everything either home or abroad so the TV is a free bonus and often don't even use the firestick just stream to our tablets for web based programmes.

An outline map of EE coverage (arguably the best) for the area. The other three carriers are poorer to much poorer.

 

[Clive Mott]

We tether to a phone for TV in Spain. Ensure you have plenty of data you can use in the EU.
Satellite in the UK and most of France.

 

[jongood]

An outline map of EE coverage (arguably the best) for the area. The other three carriers are poorer to much poorer.

View attachment 568825

it really does depend where you want to go. The Op said France and Spain.even with a 90cm dish its now pretty pointless in most of Spain, so we're using a firestick with Sky mobile s, works absolutely fi ne and cost s us £20/ month total so £240 / year but that is also our total phone bill. Yes there places where the phone signal is not perfect, but I also had occasions where I couldn't get a satelite signal or it was too windy to put it up.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Kups]

it really does depend where you want to go. The Op said France and Spain.even with a 90cm dish its now pretty pointless in most of Spain, so we're using a firestick with Sky mobile s, works absolutely fi ne and cost s us £20/ month total so £240 / year but that is also our total phone bill. Yes there places where the phone signal is not perfect, but I also had occasions where I couldn't get a satelite signal or it was too windy to put it up.

We went wireless after getting no sat reception from even intelsat 907 on a Spanish campsite due to a palm tree blocking the signal. We had booked the pitch for 2 weeks and sods law guaranteed no reception!

 

[Cockers]

We had a dish which I removed last year as we only used it occasionally and its quite heavy, installed a roof arial for the router and use a sky SIM card and use the spare data from our phones as it rolls over every month into your piggy bank. We are off to North Wales Boxing Day so I just put move 50GB to the Motorhome SIM card.

 

[bigtwin]

Based on that it would cost us nigh on a grand a year for the 4 contracts and still not guaranteed an acceptable signal to stream by.

But you wouldn’t need to spend £20/month for each of your contracts. The sensible thing to do would be to spread the equivalent 200G/month across all four contracts; less Gb/contract = less £/month. Sounds like you could optimise the cost/Gb across all four contracts.

For the same reasons as you, we run three contracts (one large Gb and two small GB, all with data rollover) from different providers at a total monthly cost of £38. We also have a satellite dish but there are times when it’s too windy to put the dish up. We think that we have a flexible arrangement that minimises potential ‘down time’.

Ian

 

[Cockers]

But you wouldn’t need to spend £20/month for each of your contracts. The sensible thing to do would be to spread the equivalent 200G/month across all four contracts; less Gb/contract = less £/month. Sounds like you could optimise the cost/Gb across all four contracts.

For the same reasons as you, we run three contracts (one large Gb and two small GB, all with data rollover) from different providers at a total monthly cost of £38. We also have a satellite dish but there are times when it’s too windy to put the dish up. We think that we have a flexible arrangement that minimises potential ‘down time’.

Ian

Our contracts are £10 for the two phones and £5 for the Motorhome sim, the £10 sims give us 10GB on each and the £5 sim is 2GB we never use our 20GB and it just keep rolling over we have about 300GB in the piggy bank so only £25 per month. works well for us

 

[Cockers]

But you wouldn’t need to spend £20/month for each of your contracts. The sensible thing to do would be to spread the equivalent 200G/month across all four contracts; less Gb/contract = less £/month. Sounds like you could optimise the cost/Gb across all four contracts.

For the same reasons as you, we run three contracts (one large Gb and two small GB, all with data rollover) from different providers at a total monthly cost of £38. We also have a satellite dish but there are times when it’s too windy to put the dish up. We think that we have a flexible arrangement that minimises potential ‘down time’.

Ian

What provider do you use that continually rolls data over

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[chrish]

I think I must be unlucky, on most of the sites we stay at we have very poor mobile signals and if there is a signal the data bandwidth is awful,
We use the Satellite Dish most of the time, it's clear that others don't have this problem. I wonder if it's affected by the pitch capacity of site that you stay on and the number of simultaneous connections.
For me I will be keeping the dish !

 

[weebill]

I have a Camos dome which is now 15 years old and still going strong And unaffected by weather conditions. This worked in France and Spain although I now have a contract phone with 3 with unlimited data which I use with a fire stick where signal strength permits. Both have their merits.

 

[PaulKW]

With our phones for £20 each per month we get 100gb of data with no restrictions abroad, for us with just the purchase of an Amazon Firestick to use with our existing TV and tether to the pnones it's a no brainer to go data.

Just out of curiosity, how much data do you use on your Firestick?
We took ours away for 3 days and maybe watched 1-2hrs TV per night for the 3 nights and it drew nearly 10GB of data in those few viewings!

 

[Cockers]

To be honest not 100% sure I generally transfer about 50GB for a week but I do change the setting on the fire stick to 720 from HD which reduces the amount of data used

 

[PaulKW]

Ah - that makes sense - 720p is less data-hungry! I'll try that next time.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Raul]

An outline map of EE coverage (arguably the best) for the area. The other three carriers are poorer to much poorer.

View attachment 568825

We have a EE account with 3 sims, two phones and one data in the van router. Total data 100gb with roaming inclusive. We toured Scotland and Hebrides in November, and never lost signal on the van. Places where phones had no signal, dead, the router always had two bars or more. What’s up call works. That’s with a poynting mimo on the roof. On two bars we could stream on firestck with little or no buffer. Even in the middle of Cairngorms we had good signal, where the map shows a void.

 

[Felipe54]

Take a snoop at Lobster mobile packages. based in Gib but uses the spanish network.
Might help on the sites that are sods to get signals on.

 

[The Wino]

Firesticks will be expensive in France & Spain (unless you're on Superdrugmobile) but you won't get much satellite in Spain unless you get a card and box to work around. If my sat wasn't already fitted when we bought the van I'd just get a freestanding dish setup

Like lots of things it depends how you use your motorhome. If you move almost every day like us I suspect that a free standing dish will end up coming out of the locker after a season or two of never being used.

 

[Cockers]

If we used the van more I would definitely swap to EE as they have by far the better download speed and coverage.

 

[bigtwin]

What provider do you use that continually rolls data over

The three rollover providers that we’re using are:

- O2 Business
- Sky
- iDMobile

Ian